Will Juice Beauty Nourish Your Skin?

Saskya ask…Does any one know some about Juice Beauty? I’m looking for a new mosturizer, but I don’t really know what to buy I don’t want something extremely expensive.

The Left Beauty Brain replies

If you are looking for a new moisturizer but don’t want to spend a lot of money, then Juice Beauty is not the product for you. Based on the ingredient lists and the marketing story, Juice Beauty products appear to be a bit over-priced for what you get. Of course, this is true of most facial products. Truthfully, a facial moisturizer is not much different than a moisturizer you might use on your hands.

Juice Beauty Moisturizer

At $36 for 2 ounces of product Juice Beauty moisturizer is only about 50% more expensive than a store brand like Olay or Neutragena. But is it 50% better? To figure this out we need to look at the ingredients and the marketing story.

Juice Beauty Ingredients

Here is the ingredient list for their nutrient moisturizer.

organic juices of vitis vinifera (white grape) juice, daucus carota sativa (carrot) juice & aloe barbadensis leaf juice, organic botanical extracts of calendula officinalis flower, matricaria chamomilla flower, tilia europea (linden) leaf & rose canina (rosehip) fruit, glycerin, organic plant oils of butyrospermum parkii (shea butter) & simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed, organic essential fatty acids of oenothera biennis (evening primrose), linum usitatissimum (linseed) seed & borago officinali (borage) seed, organic honey, vitis vinifera (grape) seed oil, organic algae extract, squalane, limnanthes alba (meadowfoam) seed oil, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), retinyl palmitate (vitamin A), magnesium ascorbyl phosphate (vitamin C), panthenol (vitamin B5), hyaluronic acid, hydroxypropyl starch phosphate, glyceryl stearate, potassium sorbate, phospholipids, beta carotene, palmitic acid, stearic acid, cetearyl glucoside, xanthan gum, disodium edta, sodium hydroxide, benzyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol, litsea cubeba (may chang), cananga odorata (ylang ylang), boswellia carterii (frankincense) & commiphora myrrha pure essential oils.

I have to give them credit, they sure pack a lot of ingredients into their formulas. But this is the first red flag. In fact, it could be a basic Beauty Brains belief.

“BEWARE OF LONG INGREDIENT LISTS”

You don’t need a lot of ingredients to make a good moisturizer so when you see a long list you can be fairly certain that the company is trying to trick you. Why have carrots, aloe, grape juice, rose hip, jojoba, linseed, ylang ylang and more? Is this a martini, a salad or a moisturizer?

Of the nearly 40 ingredients in the formula, only about 12 of them are actually making the product work. Those are the thickeners (hydroxypropyl starch phosphate, xanthan gum), and the “fatty/oily/moisturizing” materials (palmitic acid, stearic acid, cetearyl glucoside, glycerin). Other cosmetic ingredients like sodium hydroxide, benzyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol & disodium EDTA are for preservation and formula adjustment. All of these ingredients can be found in less expensive store brands.

The rest of the ingredients are marketing fluff to make you think the product is worth more.

Juice Beauty story

On their website, Juice Beauty has the quote “Buy it because it’s organic…use it because it works.” They then go on to explain why “organic” is better than “non-organic” in an interesting Question and Answer section. In reality, no one has ever shown proof that using “organic” ingredients in skin care products will make them work any better or be any safer for you. It’s one of those things that might feel better even though it’s not.

Brain’s Bottom line

Juice Beauty moisturizer contains ingredients proven to help moisturize your dried out skin. But these ingredients are the same ones you’ll find in less expensive store brands so you might want to try those products first. While Juice Beauty moisturizer is 50% more expensive, it’s not 50% better.

Do you use Juice Beauty products? What do you think of them? Are they worth the expense?